Caro
soaniclb.bsky.social
Caro
@soaniclb.bsky.social
More in hope.
Reposted by Caro
This is a wonderful thread. Scholarship, creativity, a portrait of a generation.
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
December 1, 2025 at 9:14 AM
This is the loveliest tribute to his wife, the writer Rachel Cooke, by Anthony Quinn in the Observer:https://observer.co.uk/style/features/article/her-amazing-smile-was-undimmed-and-i-would-try-anything-to-summon-it
November 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Very good news and the result of some fine reporting and an unsensational but gripping podcast series.
This is potentially huge. The UK is launching its first screening study for lead poisoning, targeting hidden exposure in children and laying the groundwork for nationwide testing.
www.ft.com/content/f2bb...
UK to launch first lead poisoning screening study of children after FT investigation
Leeds examination to target hidden exposure in the young and lay groundwork for national testing
www.ft.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:28 AM
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'Sharp women everywhere, I tell you: be pointy and proud.' One of my favourite Rachel Cooke reviews (there are so many to choose from). She was especially good at writing about group biography, having written one herself (Her Brilliant Career). What a fantastic critic she was, a one-off.
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean – review
Dean’s group biography of female writers who dared speak their mind is a great and worthy project
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:19 PM
This is such dreadful news: Rachel Cooke was a marvellous, funny, intelligent writer. I was wondering where she was only yesterday, searching to find her most recent article: on losing her appetite…
Wonderful and moving tribute by @timadamswrites.bsky.social to Rachel Cooke, the brilliant Observer journalist who also frequently lit up the pages of the Guardian Weekly, who has died at the age of 56.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
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Attorneys General
Courts Martial
Poets Laureate
Bodies Politic
Balls Bearing
Yorkies Duo
October 26, 2025 at 6:42 PM
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"I hear again and again that the Israelis – the Jews – had it coming. Knowing allusions to Jewish influence, Jewish power. Stereotypes of Jewish cruelty."

Written before today's attack on a Manchester synagogue. It's the kind of piece I never thought I'd write.

www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
The 7 October attacks changed what it means to be Jewish in Britain
The war in Gaza has exposed a level of anti-Semitism I didn’t realise was there
www.newstatesman.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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Best thing ever from the V&A stores today: on the front of Margret Mason’s 1660 sampler are clothed “boxer” figures (little men holding gifts, acorns here). Turn the sampler over and the men look much the same but are completely naked!
September 23, 2025 at 5:51 PM
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September 27, 2025 at 10:55 AM
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September 11, 2025 at 12:20 PM
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Very sad to hear about the death of Andrew Saint, pictured here giving huge architectural history energy with Gavin Stamp at the NT. His books all written with tremendous style across a terrific range of topics. Towards a Social Architecture, his superb history of post-war schools my favourite.
July 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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For @engelsbergideas.bsky.social I wrote about Metropolitan, a timeless witty comedy of manners - about virtue, no less - by @whitstillman.bsky.social
June 11, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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Great to sit down with John Gilhooly the other week to talk about season planning, Yunchan Lim, ACE and… surtitling Lieder recitals! @wigmore-hall.org.uk
bachtrack.com/interview-jo...
On top of the chamber music world: Wigmore Hall’s John Gilhooly
The London venue’s Artistic Director talks about Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary season, programming 600 concerts – and finding ways to pay for it all.
bachtrack.com
April 23, 2025 at 6:53 AM
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Something I’ve been working on for months: a long read about Nottingham alabasters - those beautiful and obscure objects of medieval devotion open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
Nottingham alabaster: objects of strangeness, mystery and devotion
How the English Reformation tried to obliterate a unique medieval artform
open.substack.com
January 30, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Lovely piece by @mathewlyons.bsky.social inspired by going through his parents’ books

mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-librar...
January 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
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Fascinating long read which makes me disinclined ever to enter a Samuel Smiths pub again (not that it happened very often).

www.theguardian.com/news/2024/de...
Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain
Since the 1970s, Humphrey Smith has acquired scores of pubs and historic properties around the UK. But time after time, he has left the buildings empty. Why has he allowed his empire to moulder?
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2024 at 8:47 AM
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A hand made of bronze and gold. It has been interpreted as the earliest proshetic hand for a casualty of conflict, a symbol for the status of the bearer. However, the solar symbols on the cuff suggest that it had also a cosmological significance.
Found in Prêles, ...🧵1/2

#archaeology 🏺
📷by me
December 14, 2024 at 11:15 AM
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New post just out:

My Books of the Year 2024

Ideas for late presents or just to keep yourself occupied while the terrible Christmas TV is on.

(Free to read)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
Books of the Year 2024
It’s that time of year when I reveal my favourite books of the year and hopefully give a bit of help to late present buyers.
open.substack.com
December 14, 2024 at 9:10 AM
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erm ... hello?
November 25, 2024 at 4:57 PM
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Which judge resigned because the books were "mere pornography"? Which author, according to another judge, "puts one off sex"? Which book did Saul Bellow dismiss as a "tinkling teacup thing"? Who refused to give the prize to a book about cannibalism?

I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
The Booker in the 1970s: 10 novels that are well worth rediscovering, five decades later | The Booker Prizes
The Booker shortlists of the 1970s are of exceptionally high quality, and while some of the novels may have fallen out of fashion, they’re essential volumes for any keen reader’s library
thebookerprizes.com
November 19, 2024 at 5:34 PM
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Just going to post #TomorrowsPapersToday here tonight as well as at the other place as a little test…
November 16, 2024 at 8:27 PM